When Women Were Dragons: A Novel
By: Kelly Barnhill / Narrated By: Kimberly Farr, Mark Bramhall
Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
Wow… the reviews are all over the place… so listen to meeee! instead…!!!
Ya know, I’d loved When Women Were Dragons so very much that I aaaalmost scooted on by without checking other reviews to jog m’ memory should something absolutely egregious have slipped by, what with me feeling all good and enthusiastic.
Here’s what others said that I apparently missed: It’s all about white women, appropriating Civil Rights struggles for themselves… or it’s all man-bashing… it’s all LGBTQ+ with only women and drag queens evolving… oh, and it also appropriated the House Un-American Activities Committee, making it all an Uber-Feminist Rant. So there’s aaaallll of thaaat…
Dang! and here I thought I was listening to a, quite simply, sumptuous telling that hearkened me back to my second reading of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Yeh yeh yeh, it took me two visits to that story and the horrific hits taken by Women’s Health Choices/Autonomy to finally Grok to the Current Horror… I’m dense like that!).
Our protagonist, Alexandra (“It’s ALEX…”) knows heartache and confusion deep in her heart. One day she’s a normal 4-year old, the next thing she knows is that her mother’s gone, no explanations, just her Aunt Marla showing up and keeping body and soul together. Soon her beloved mother is back but is an emaciated shell of her former self. When she’s older, Alex will understand that cancer was what took her mom away for that time, but at the time? Noooo, she sees Marla lovingly smoothing oils onto the scarred/burnt by radiation body of her mother, the half-moon scars where breasts used to be.
But it’s never to be spoken of.
Nothing is spoken of, especially if you’re female and living in vastly patriarchal 1950s America, and CERtainly NOTHING is spoken about the Great Dragoning in 1955 where hundreds of thousands of women shed their stifled lives, their human skin, turned into Dragons and flew away, leaving torched homes, and even a corpse or two, generally of those who abused them.
While Alex’s mom maaaay’ve felt the urge, she did not Dragon, but a determined Marla leaves her job, leaves her beloved daughter Beatrice in a confused Alex’s arms and does indeed heed The Call, leaving her life behind. The Dragoning is not spoken of, Beatrice is no longer Cousin but is Sister, and the word “Dragon” is never to be mentioned, not even in jest.
When tragedy strikes in the middle of the book, Alex, at age 15, is left to care for little Bea, by herself, in a rundown apartment, with only small deposits of funds left in accounts and a stilted phone call on Sundays being the only contact she has with her father who’s moved on and has a new family. This, p’raps, is where several reviewers opined that the story drags in places. I mean, we totally get that Alex has to grow beyond her years, shoulder burdens no girl should have to, and that she’s been deeply, DEEPLY! affected by loss and views Bea as her one remaining source of love, support, family. Whereas she’d once hoped Marla would return, a Dragon hellbent on destruction and vengeance, she now buckles down, feeling unutterably alone save Bea.
But Bea is desperate to grow wings, loves drawing Dragons (Forbidden! and worth a call to the Principal’s office for a conference on unacceptable behavior). And yeh yeh yeh, it gets a triiiifle old just how often Alex jumps on Bea, stamps down her liveliness, dashes Bea’s hopes, and just generally lives in fear, guided only by Hope.
I, however, thought it particularly brilliant character-arc-crafting so that we Listeners know just how very much is at stake. Further, author Barnhill just plain writes her characters with an incredible amount of depth, leaving us with supremely fleshed-out and three-dimensional people, and even tho’ Dad behaves despicably throughout most of this book, even he is written with some warmth when the Dragons return.
-AND-
Barnhill writes of Love and Hope like nobody’s business; over and over and over, the ties between characters are built and maintained, are lovingly crafted. There’s a lot at stake in this novel, personal freedom and growth, yes, but also one’s standing in Society, the belief and acceptance, denial, or refusal of Societal Norms (And most chapters end with research papers on Dragons, or they are transcripts of being brought before the HUAC McCarthy Hearings, that particular era where all that is different is demonized, all that p’raps is Scientific Fact is shunned in favor of casting out in the name of Denial, of Fear).
Narration? TOPNOTCH!!! Kimberly Farr voices our women who rock, our confused teenaged heroine, our young Beatrice as she laughs and trills with vibrant, sparkling life. Male voices? No problem! Romantic interludes? Check, and no toe-curling on this end, so a mighty huzzah there! Seasoned narrator Mark Bramhall brings his own talents to the tacked on research papers/witch hunts that end each chapter, and he is, quite naturally, AWESOME!!! I have to admit I’m soooo used to his “McCray Family” series of Christmas audiobooks where he’s dead-on the patriarch of the family, an older gentleman who feels deeply, and a man who’s getting older, a bit more exhausted with each Life Blow that comes his way. All that? I had to release as he does our urbane Doctor’s research papers, the contentious Committee members, to a tee. Which is NOT to take away from Farr’s voicing of Absolutely. EVERYthing Else! Brava, Bravo, dual narrators to die for!
I found the entirety of this novel to be engaging as all Get-Out (I’d scheduled three days for the Listen, but danged if I didn’t get it all done in two, stopping only to begrudgingly have to get some sleep in there!). I thought it came off as truly brilliant speculative fiction, and I truly enjoyed seeing Barnhill give shoutouts to Women Who Own Their Power, willing to defy Norms, women from all walks of life be they mechanics, teachers, stay at home moms, doctors: ALL women who choose for themselves, take responsibility full for their lives.
Barnhill does that thing I love so much: She crafts stories anew each go-round, but they’re always Always ALWAYS filled with such heart, so much love.
And, as Always! DRAGONS!!!
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